Conventionally, when a maker receives an order of a product such as a copier or a facsimile from a customer, the product is packaged by a packaging member such as a corrugated board and delivered to the customer site, but disposal of the used packaging member is left to the customer.
However, in order to deliver the product as a precision machine, some strength has to be given to the packaging member using the corrugated board. Resultantly, the packaging member becomes comparatively costly even though it is a disposable one. Referring to the recent environmental problems, if the disposable type of packaging member is used, the load of disposing the member is put more heavily on the customer.
Therefore, in recent years, the case of repeatedly using a rack explained below for delivery of an article has been increased. This rack is assembled with rack components made of resin or metal and is capable of being disassembled or folded. For example, in Japanese Patent Application No. HEI 11-290551 filed by the applicant of this application, an article conveyance and storage device is disclosed. In this device, coupling members are provided between two adjacent supports so that each distance of the supports detachably fitted to four corners of a pallet where an article is loaded can be freely changed. When the pallets from which the supports are detached are vertically stacked, a support unit formed with the supports and the coupling members is accommodated in the internal side of the pallets.
However, even if the conventional rack represented by this conventional art is used, there comes up a problem such that the rack operation becomes more complicated just because the rack has been produced based on the idea of its reuse though the times of repeatedly using the rack are prolonged.
For example, there are many cases where a new product of a copier is delivered to a customer and at the same time an old product already owned by the customer is collected at the customer site. However, if the shape of the new product is different from that of the old one, the same rack can not be used. Accordingly, a rack for delivering the new product and a rack for collecting the old product have to be separately brought to the customer site.
Recently in particular, the disposal of the electric appliances have become burdensome for customers. Needs for customers who desire old products to be collected at the time of purchasing new products has tended to increase. Therefore, it is an extremely important matter how efficiently collect such products. This matter is applied not only to the electric appliances but also to a self-propelled device and a non-self-propelled device other than an image formation device. This matter is also applied to any device that does not function singly, parts forming a device, a container with liquid, gas, or a solid burned to produce heat or power and an empty container, or a substance to be conveyed such as a solid burned to produce heat or power, non-food/drinks or food/drinks.
The conventional rack represented by this conventional art has to be collected and reused after an article is delivered to a customer. Therefore, it is important how to manage these racks and rack components forming each of the racks. In such a case, it can be considered that the rack components in use are discretely managed for each rack. However, when an enormous number of articles are to be delivered to a variety of customers, the number of racks in use becomes also enormous. Therefore, how to efficiently manage the racks in use becomes an extremely significant problem.
Especially, when the conventional type of copier is to be delivered using a repeatedly-usable rack, this type of copier is accompanied with large-sized mechanical components such as a paper feeder and a sorter. Therefore, it is necessary to efficiently manage multistage racks to be assembled at a plurality of production sites and new multistage racks obtained after the plurality of multistage racks are reassembled.
For example, when main bodies (X) of copiers are produced at a production site A and paper feeders (Y) are produced at a production site B, a double-stacked rack as X/X is carried from the production site A to a relay point, and a double-stacked rack as Y/Y is carried from the production site B to the relay point. Two double-stacked racks as X/Y and X/Y are delivered from the relay point to the customer. Therefore, these double-stacked racks have to be efficiently managed.
Further, the above-mentioned types of article conveyance and storage devices have conventionally been known. These article conveyance and storage devices are used to convey industrial products such as electric appliances, various types of components, various materials such as architectural materials, furniture, natural substances, or some other articles, and to store them. In order to convey or store an article by such an article conveyance and storage device, the article is first loaded onto a pallet of the device directly or through another member. A plurality of supports are fitted to the pallet so as to surround the article with these supports. This article is then conveyed or stored together with the article conveyance and storage device.
For example, there is a case where the article is transported from one site to another using the article conveyance and storage device, the article is unloaded from the pallet at the destination, and the article conveyance and storage device is transported to the original site to be collected. In such a case, as the supports can be detached from the pallet, these supports can be folded to be compact in size and efficiently be transported back to the original site. When the article conveyance and storage device is not used, the device can also be stored in such a state.
However, a plurality of supports are provided in the article conveyance and storage device. Therefore, if these supports detached from the pallet may come apart, the working efficiency at the time of conveying such supports will decrease. Further, a large space may be required for conveying or storing these supports. Such inconvenience will become significant when the supports of a large number of article conveyance and storage devices are collectively transported back to the original site or stored therein.
The article conveyance and storage device, in which two adjacent supports are coupled by coupling members so as to be capable of being closer to or apart from each other, has been proposed by the applicant of this application (JP, HEI 11-348985A). In this device, when the supports are detached from the pallet, the supports may move relatively. Therefore, it is also difficult to efficiently convey these supports.
To solve the problem, there is an idea that the plurality of supports detached from the pallet are bundled by a fastening tool such as a band or a loop and the bundled supports are conveyed or stored. However, if doing so, the fastening tool is always carried together with the article conveyance and storage device. Accordingly, the conveying work of the articles and the collecting work of the article conveyance and storage device are inevitably complicated. Further, it is quite difficult to fasten these supports firmly so as not to be moved even if these supports are bundled by the fastening tool.
On the other hand, when an article is loaded on a pallet, a plurality of supports are fitted to the pallet, and the article is conveyed, if there is a large gap between the article and each of the supports, the article largely vibrates due to an impactive force or the like added during conveyance, which may cause the article to be damaged. Therefore, by providing shock absorbers between the article and the supports to hold the article by the supports through the shock absorbers, the vibration of the article can be suppressed.
Conventionally, a corrugated board or the like has been used as the shock absorber, and this shock absorber has been packed into between the article and each of the supports. However, it is not easy to keep such a shock absorber between the article and the support without displacement, and the work for packing the shock absorber into the space between the article and the support has also been awkward. Further, the corrugated board has been generally disposed at a destination. Resultantly, a large amount of wastes has been produced at the destination.